Shattergang Brothers is a powerful Commander from the Commander 2013. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is a Legendary Creature from Commander 2015 who can also be a fairly powerful Commander. As the Shattergang Brothers are concerned with forcing everybody to sacrifice a bunch of things, why not take advantage of all those sacrifices by also playing Mazirek alongside? That does seem like a pretty good plan, doesn't it?

This synergy has been pointed out more than a few times recently, but so far, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest has been understudy to Commander 2015 mate Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Shattergang Brothers' good friend, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. The synergy with Prossh is fairly obvious, as Prossh loves to sacrifice creatures and Mazirek gives him quite an extra boost, effectively doubling his own ability while also benefitting any other creatures you may still have out. But the synergy with Shattergang Brothers appears to be even more obvious, as you're getting 2-4 sacrifices at a time in a typical multi-player Commander game. That's a lot of +1/+1 counters you're racking up all of a sudden.

Shattergang Brothers' decks have plenty of creatures and plenty of ways to make more on a consistent basis. It's just a matter of working Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest into the deck. I'm sure plenty of Shattergang Brothers lists will find a way to incorporate this very abuse-able pump ability in the near future. He's not one of the more popular Commanders in the game, but this combination could make the Goblin Brothers much more of a threat than ever before.

Daxos the Returned is a Legendary Creature from Commander 2015 that I've briefly reviewed before. While Daxos appears to be more of a "build around me" card in that you need to be running a particularly Enchantment-heavy deck, that doesn't stop players from trying to fit him in their existing Commander decks.

In the 99, Daxos the Returned seems like he could be a good ally for Enchantment-abuser heavy-weight Zur the Enchanter. In fact, it's a question I see asked quite a bit. Can they really join forces and benefit one another?

Previously in my brief initial review of Daxos, I noted that Zur’s ability to put an Enchantment directly into play doesn’t synergize well with Daxos’ experience counter ability. That being said, Zur has a great deal of cheap enchantments (converted mana cost 3 or less) in his deck, many of which you will probably find yourself casting at one point or another.

On paper, it does seem like Daxos the Returned could find a little niche to carve out in this deck. Even if Daxos only nets you a small handful of experience counters while he's on the board, creating a bunch of 3 mana Enchantment creature tokens can't hurt. But the issue is that Daxos's ability makes him far better as a Commander, as once he's removed from the board, Zur doesn't really have an easy way to get him back. So while there is some loose synergy as far as how many Enchantments you would end up casting in a Zur deck, the token plan doesn't really mesh with what Zur is trying to do. That is, lock other players out of the game with a bevy of cheap but effective Enchantments and slowly but surely whittle away your opponents with a protected Zur himself.

Are there other Commanders that could use him effectively as an Ally within the 99? Teysa, Orzhov Scion seems like a good fit, as she's often looking for white creatures to sacrifice in order to exile opposing creatures. Also, because the tokens re both white and black, these tokens benefit from her second ability, as well. In sacrificing those tokens, they become replaced with 1/1 white Spirit tokens with flying. So there is some loose synergy there.. But it's unlikely that you'll amass many experience counters as Teysa only runs a modest amount of Enchantments in her decks.

Daxos's mate from Commander 2015, Karlov of the Ghost Council, does like a bunch of Enchantments in his decks, although the synergy outside of the pure amount of Enchantments you'd be casting isn't obvious. There aren't any other decks in either White/Black or White/Black/Blue that are obvious homes, either.

In White/Black/Green (Abzan), however, there are the popular token-happy Commanders Daghatar the Adamant and Ghave, Guru of Spores. Both decks play a fair amount of Enchantments, and Daxos the Returned could prove to be a useful token generator. Still, it's sort of an awkward combination.

Like a good many Legendary Creatures created specifically for the Commander format through the pre-constructed decks, Daxos the Returned is best utilized when built around as a commander.

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Blade of Selves is an Equipment that features the Myriad mechanic, new to Commander 2015. While the effect of Myriad is useless in one-on-one Magic, in multiplayer Commander games, this Blade can be extremely powerful if equipped to the right creature. This Blade gives the equipped creature Myriad, which means for each player beyond the creature the equipped creature is attacking, you make a token copy of that creature which is tapped and attacking each other player (or a planeswalker that player controls). This seems all well and good. Being able to attack every player at once in multiplayer is pretty cool. Getting one or two (or more) extra enter the battlefield effects is just gravy.

The main downside to this is it doesn't work well on a Legendary creature, correct? Actually, despite having to sacrifice the new token copies that enter, any enter the battlefield abilities still trigger. Because of how the Legendary rule works, you can choose to keep your original Legendary on board. Also, because these tokens are forced to be sacrificed, they trigger “when it dies” effects, which for certain Legendaries, such as Kokusho, the Evening Star and Vela the Night- Clad, is a big deal. Ordinarily, you wouldn't get "when it dies" effects since the tokens are exiled at the end of the turn. But with Legendary Creatures, the rule actually benefits you with the Blade.

Most of the time, however, you’ll want to use this Equipment on non-Legendary creatures that have enter the battlefield abilities that you can abuse. Four mana seems like a bit of a steep equip cost, but it’s worth making free copies of creatures. With Eternal Witness, you can get one, two, or more extra cards back from your graveyard each time that Witness attacks! Being an artifact, there are hundreds of creatures that this Equipment will work well with and it can fit into any deck. Since these tokens must be exiled at end of turn, decks that have sacrifice outlets can benefit, as well.

There are so many options with Blade of Selves. Yes, this Equipment is only good in multiplayer games. But this includes any multiplayer format that supports Legacy-legal cards such as Archenemy or Planechase, not only Commander. Since it can fit into any deck being a colorless artifact, this is a super fun, sometimes game-ending, inclusion in a wide array of decks.